A beautifully written portrayal of a Ukrainian family that perhaps resonates now more than ever.
A historical novel focuses on a mother’s search for her children in Ukraine following World War I.
In autumn 1919 Elvira Maria Andrushko and her two children, Ana and Sasha, wait to board a train from the village of Kos, near Kyiv, to Odessa. A young widow, Elvira Maria is seeking safety for her family when a rush to board the train separates her from her kids. Unable to follow them to Odessa until two days later, Elvira Maria frantically combs the city for her family as she struggles to make a life for herself. In the same building where she finds a room lives Michail Lukashenko, a 40-year-old puppeteer and artist (“He was strikingly handsome, his chin dimpled, his black hair still thick, his body lean and muscular”). He eventually takes the struggling widow under his wing and tries to help her find her children. Through Michail, the story connects to a variety of characters in Odessa that allows for the examination of the rising tensions in this city deemed safe: There are revolutionaries and brothel madams, street urchins and gangs. As months go by, Michail and Elvira Maria’s relationship develops beyond friendship. In Grow’s well-crafted novel, Michail is the most intriguing character, with his connection to his childhood companion Ivan Dashkevich, a Bolshevik, a high point. The author’s exploration of this male friendship is compelling and poignant. In addition, the book skillfully examines a variety of historical events, touching on the rise of the Communists in the early 20th century as well as the options for women and the displacement of families during this period. The constant search for Ana and Sasha could have become a tiring and repetitive thread, but Grow, over the course of the year in which the narrative is set, delivers a story full of twists and turns, gripping readers right until the very end.
A beautifully written portrayal of a Ukrainian family that perhaps resonates now more than ever.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Studio 17
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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